Abstract

Our strategy to inhibit Au(0) growth with temperature involves the preparation of ultrafine Au clusters that are highly dispersed and strongly interacting with a thermally stable high-surface-area substrate. Temperature-stable Au-cluster-based catalysts were successfully prepared through the controlled synthesis of 3.5 nm Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 colloidal building blocks containing tailored strongly bound Au-cluster precursors. With the objective of stabilizing these Au clusters with temperature, grain growth of Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 nanodomains was inhibited by their dispersion through Al2O3 nanodomains. High surface area Au–Ce0.5Zr0.5O2–Al2O3 nanostructured composites were thus designed highlighting the drastic effect of Au cluster dispersion on Au(0) cluster growth. High thermal stability of our Au(0)-cluster-based catalysts was shown with the surprising catalytic activity for CO conversion observed on our nanostructured materials heated to temperatures as high as 800 C for 6 h.

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

Thanks to Royal Society of Chemistry editor. The definitive version is available at http://www.rsc.org The original PDF of the article can be found at Journal of Materials Chemistry website : http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/jm/